I,m new to Avast. Have tried it for less than a day. Tried to scan my hard drive and it freezes about half way through. The first scan I tried was the though scan. I thought that this was maybe the problem. So I tried to run a quick scan. Same thing. Once avast encounters certain large files (single files that are over 2gb in size) it freezes by consuming 100% of my 2.4G CPU. I then have no option but to power down and restart my computer.
Somebody please tell me why.
Can you post the name and the path of these files?
Which is your operational system?
Any other security programs installed (antivirus, firewall, antispyware)?
I’m running Windows XP SP1
File is approx 920mb
Path is: C:\Pinnacle Studio\Auxiliary Files\HomeMovie01\DVD\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
No other antivirus or similar products installed
In the old days (5 years ago) a person used to be able to install a program and use it ‘as is’. No updating required. This is my first new computer in 5 years and so far I have had to spend vasts amounts of time trying to get many new programs to work. They usually always require instant updates, sometimes uninstalling then reinstalling. Nero7 required downloading the entire trial edition 7.0.1.2 and installing it overtop of the store bought 7.0.0.0 version in order to get Nero burning rom to work.
Now I hear all of these wonderful reviews about Avast, so I think that finally I may have stumbled on program that is well designed and developed just like the old days, but apparently this is not the case.
I do not have a real desire to burn hours away trying to get a program to work properly. Can anyone tell what’s going on with this software nowdays?
P.S.
I also checked the log report for errors and there was a ton. Many reporting that a file could not be scanned because it was password protected. Zip files. I can open all of them without a password, and I don’t see why that should matter anyway. Can a virus checker scan your entire system whether you have passwords on files or not.
Well, if such a big file is scanned, it certainly can take a while. It sounds like you are running a thorough scan though - VOB files wouldn’t be scanned for lower sensitivity.
If avast! reports that the file is password-protected, then it most likely is - I’ve never seen a file that would be reported as password-protected by mistake (unless it’s heavily damaged, maybe). So, I doubt you could extract the file without password.
Anyway, avast! is just notifying you that it wasn’t able to scan the content even though it is a supported type of archive - it doesn’t really affect the rest of the scan. So, I guess you should simply ignore the warnings…
An antivirus based on signatures can’t be, for its own nature, a non-updatable software. It’s a dynamic application by its own nature. If you found an antivirus that does not update you can’t trust it 
Look, there are legit passworded files. A lot of applications do it. THAT APPLICATION could open the files without a password but not the others. Try, for instance, opening the avast! Chest (Quarentine) files (C:\Program Files\Alwil Software\Avast4\DATA\chest). You won’t be able. That’s the purpose. To keep viruses and infected files safe. They can’t leave or be read. You don’t know what you’re asking: if an application should be able to use brute force to open passworded files, which kind of password will be these ones, so easily discovered? Passworded files are safe, virus can’t go out of them.
There are in fact two exclusion lists: one in program settings, for the on-demand scanning.
And other in Standard Shield settings, for the on-access protection (residents).
Second, it’s necessary to put the complete mask to the exclusions, i.e. something like
C:\Pinnacle Studio\Auxiliary Files\HomeMovie01\DVD\VIDEO_TS*.VOB
or simply
**.VOB
I’d rather suggest the later, because of potential problems with long file names in the first case.